The present invention relates to a method for driving an injector in an internal combustion engine, and in particular for driving an injector of a direct petrol injection system, to which the following description will make explicit reference without, however, departing from its general nature.
Petrol engines provided with direct fuel injection, i.e. engines in which the petrol is injected directly into the cylinders by appropriate injectors, each of which is normally disposed in the port of a respective cylinder and is current-driven by a driving device, have recently been introduced into the market.
Known driving devices are adapted to cause a current wave which is variable over time, which has an initial section substantially of a pulse type and having a relatively high current intensity, and a final section having a substantially constant and relatively low current intensity, to circulate via an injector control circuit.
Known driving devices of the type described above are not able accurately to implement small injection times, i.e. having a very short final section (typical of the idling of the engine) because of the high energy stored in the inductive components of the control circuit of the injector during the above-mentioned initial section substantially of a pulse type and having a relatively high current intensity; this stored energy often prevents effective closure of the injector at the end of the final current section, and prolongs the opening of the injector for a certain time interval after the end of this final current section.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method for driving an injector in an internal combustion engine which is free from the drawbacks described above and which is, moreover, simple and economic to embody.
The present invention therefore relates to a method for driving an injector in an internal combustion engine as claimed in claim 1.
The present invention further relates to a device for driving an injector in an internal combustion engine.
The present invention therefore relates to a device for driving an injector in an internal combustion engine as claimed in claim 15.